January / February 2001 Vol. 33, no. 1

The School Library Manifesto Available Worldwide

Sjoerd Koopman
IFLA Coordinator of Professional Activities

The International Federation of Libraries and Institutions (IFLA) has a very broad mission. We believe that libraries address people’s need to access information, and we promote the principle of freedom of access to information. IFLA also strives to close the gap between the information poor and the information rich.

High up among IFLA's professional priorities is certainly the issue of standardization of activities, processes and techniques that are used in the library field. Since IFLA's inception more than 70 year ago, agreement on worldwide standards and the development of guidelines have always been prominent in our program.

During the last decade of the 20th century, we have been witnessing the further combination of the ethical aspects of the library profession (rights, broad access, etc.) with the organizational components of the field. Nowadays, the exchange of best practices goes hand in hand with the defence of core human values like freedom of expression.

An example of these recent developments was the Public Library Manifesto, which was published jointly by IFLA and UNESCO in the mid-1990s. This document highlights the objectives of the modern public library by making direct links between the basic ideals of democracy and the daily operation and management of library services.

The Public Library Manifesto has been translated into some 30 languages; the full text of 20 different language versions is currently available on IFLA's Web site, www.ifla.org.

The success of the Public Library Manifesto is now being challenged by a comparable document, The School Library Manifesto. Again this key declaration takes core values as a starting point and makes recommendations for the daily work of the school librarian, calling for its integration into the educational process.

The school library provides learning services, books and resources that enable all members of the school community to become critical thinkers and effective users of information in all formats and media. It is viewed as essential to every long-term strategy for literacy. Reading the text of this important manifesto is highly recommended.

The National Library of Canada (NLC) has played an important role in the realization of The School Library Manifesto. It was Gwynneth Evans, Director General, National and International Programs, who chaired the workshop that was held in Amsterdam in 1998. Under the auspices of IFLA and with financial support from UNESCO, a number of international experts laid the basis for the text.

Once the Manifesto had been finalized and approved by IFLA, Marianne Scott, former national librarian, put forward a resolution during UNESCO's General Conference in November 1999. The Manifesto was then ratified by UNESCO. The School Library Manifesto can be found at IFLANET, www.ifla.org/VII/s11/ssl.htm#3d, in eight different languages, but we hope to soon have it available in many more.

The National Library of Canada provided great support by paying for a large part of the design and printing of a paper version of the Manifesto in English, French and Spanish. To have an electronic version of this core document is nice, and even important, but still this is not enough. A couple of months ago, a room in the Library was for the largest part occupied by 85 000 copies of the attractive brochure.

The NLC also made the valuable contribution of disseminating The School Library Manifesto. Tens of thousands of copies in the various languages available were dispatched in packages by the Library to destinations all over the world. They were sent to library associations that are members of IFLA and to a number of related organizations, such as the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL).

Not only have approximately 30 000 copies of the English-language version been distributed to more than 100 countries in the world, but the Spanish booklet was sent to Argentina, Chile, Spain, Mexico and Paraguay. The French version is now available from Benin to Cambodia and from Quebec to Cameroon.

On behalf of IFLA, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the National Library of Canada for a job well done. Many colleagues around the globe owe the Library thanks for its efforts.

For more information on The School Library Manifesto, please contact Sjoerd Koopman.